Mis-uses for the web
June 13, 2006 07:48 AM Filed in: Rants
So here's a good one.
I have found what has got to be one of the most "customer unfriendly" organizations ever in terms of being able to resolve an issue.
The organization unfortunately happens to be the billing service for my son's pediatrician.
I will state, for the record, that the office manager there is very nice. She has responded to me personally to try to resolve this issue. She's a pleasant person and she understands my frustrations.
However, getting a personal response out of this billing service is more painful than beating my head against a wall repeatedly.
For 7 months, I've been getting claims reportedly rejected by insurance (they were submitting them to the wrong place). Then they lost the payment. Then they misapplied the correction. Resulting in a persistent stream of bills.
The contact methods are as follows:
- In writing
- Via "email" (which is a web form)
- Via "phone"
That last one is really a misnomer. Yes, you use the phone. No, there is no way at all to get to a real person directly. There is a lengthy introduction about how to contact them (and how not to keep repeating your requests). It talks about a response in 24 business hours. That's 3 days. Not including weekends. And then sometimes, the response takes longer to get to you because they decide to mail you a response via US Mail! By which time, if you've listened to the spiel, you're likely to have contacted them again because you didn't hear anything from them! And you get a response back "We've already responded to you, repeating your requests only delays our ability to respond to you in a timely manner."
And then, there is the ultimate implementation of voicemail hell. I've been through every one of the 10 options in their list, plus the "extension" listed on the bill. Every single one ends up in a different voicemail mailbox! They must be spending all their time entering in 10 different codes to get to all those mailboxes. And unlike most places where if you just don't hit anything, you get to an operator....not this place. You get yet another voicemail mailbox (oh, I guess that means 11 different mailboxes).
Talking with the office manager (yes, she called me once and I was actually available to take the call), she recognized this was a problem, but that her management didn't think so. I wonder what it would take to change her management's mind? Too bad my son's pediatrician group is really nice and I'm not motivated to change from the services provided point of view....
I have found what has got to be one of the most "customer unfriendly" organizations ever in terms of being able to resolve an issue.
The organization unfortunately happens to be the billing service for my son's pediatrician.
I will state, for the record, that the office manager there is very nice. She has responded to me personally to try to resolve this issue. She's a pleasant person and she understands my frustrations.
However, getting a personal response out of this billing service is more painful than beating my head against a wall repeatedly.
For 7 months, I've been getting claims reportedly rejected by insurance (they were submitting them to the wrong place). Then they lost the payment. Then they misapplied the correction. Resulting in a persistent stream of bills.
The contact methods are as follows:
- In writing
- Via "email" (which is a web form)
- Via "phone"
That last one is really a misnomer. Yes, you use the phone. No, there is no way at all to get to a real person directly. There is a lengthy introduction about how to contact them (and how not to keep repeating your requests). It talks about a response in 24 business hours. That's 3 days. Not including weekends. And then sometimes, the response takes longer to get to you because they decide to mail you a response via US Mail! By which time, if you've listened to the spiel, you're likely to have contacted them again because you didn't hear anything from them! And you get a response back "We've already responded to you, repeating your requests only delays our ability to respond to you in a timely manner."
And then, there is the ultimate implementation of voicemail hell. I've been through every one of the 10 options in their list, plus the "extension" listed on the bill. Every single one ends up in a different voicemail mailbox! They must be spending all their time entering in 10 different codes to get to all those mailboxes. And unlike most places where if you just don't hit anything, you get to an operator....not this place. You get yet another voicemail mailbox (oh, I guess that means 11 different mailboxes).
Talking with the office manager (yes, she called me once and I was actually available to take the call), she recognized this was a problem, but that her management didn't think so. I wonder what it would take to change her management's mind? Too bad my son's pediatrician group is really nice and I'm not motivated to change from the services provided point of view....
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